Can I self-host Next.js with a custom HTTP or Express server and keep hot reloading?

[HollyWaymack]

Summary

I like the developer experience provided by Next.js on Vercel, but I want control over the underlying server so I can manage WebSocket connections, CRON jobs, Redis, Queues, etc.

Can I run Next.js through my own Node.js HTTP or Express server while retaining Fast Refresh and hot reloading during development?

Additional information

No response

Example

No response

[KevinAshley]

Yes, Next.js has a server API for exactly this kind of setup. I’ve used it with a self-hosted Docker Compose stack on AWS, and I have full hot-reloading for both NextJS and Server code in development.

The essential server setup is very small:

import http from "http";
import next from "next";

const port = Number(process.env.APPLICATION_PORT);
const dev = process.env.NODE_ENV !== "production";

// Enables Next.js development mode, including Fast Refresh.
const app = next({ dev, port });

await app.prepare();

const handle = app.getRequestHandler();

http.createServer((req, res) => {
  handle(req, res);
}).listen(port);

The key line is:

const app = next({ dev, port });

When dev is true, Next.js handles Fast Refresh for the application itself.

And in development I also run the custom server through tsx in watch mode (via Dockerfile CMD):

{
  "scripts": {
    ...,
    "dev:server": "tsx watch src/server.ts",
    ...,
  }
}

These two are complementary in development.

• Next.js detects changes within the application and applies Fast Refresh.
• tsx watch detects changes to the custom server code and automatically restarts the Node.js process.

This means both sides of the application remain convenient to develop: UI and Next.js changes refresh through Next.js, while changes to WebSockets, cron jobs, Redis integration, queues, health checks, or other server-level code cause an automatic server restart.

When running inside Docker, the source directory must also be bind-mounted into the container so both watchers can see local file changes.

Here's the official Next.js Custom Server documentation:
https://nextjs.org/docs/app/guides/custom-server